Practically Siblings
by Adelheid32
Summary: The story of Hugo Weasley and Penny Boot through their years of Hogwarts, as they deal with friends and family and hiding secrets, all while being close friends, so close that they are "Practically Siblings."
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the songs mentioned.

The first time Hugo Weasley meets Porpentina Boot she is 8 and he is 6.

She is at her aunt's house because she was being babysit by her Aunt Luna, along with her sister Artemis. Penny is with her aunt because her mother, who teaches piano and other music, to both magical and muggle folk, is swamped with lessons, while her father is busy with Queenie at a St. Mungo's. She is too young to realize that her oldest sister has become branded with the term 'special.' She hasn't yet come to the realization that while the healers, unspeakables, and other magic experts will poke and prod at her sister with fascination, her sister will face the hardest challenges ever in earning people's trust.

She is also too little to know that the fact which people sometimes talk without noise isn't normal.

She doesn't know that everyone around her — her Aunt Luna, her sister Artemis, her parents — do not hear what she calls silent speaking and voices. What people don't always say out loud. Even at age eight, she has already become a bit knowledgeable about it. It is their candid opinions. They are sometimes meant to be more private, which she has learned the hard way after speaking to many times with candor.

She likes hearing the voices; however, sometimes it is a lot to handle. But, made ever precocious due to the voices, she is coping, learning to sneak off for bits of alone time. She's noticed that this worries her parents — not that they say it out loud, of course, but she hears it in the silent speaking — so she has developed the perfect amount of time. An amount where she gets a recharge, but where they don't always notice.

It is easiest for her around her great-grandparents. For her great-grandfather, who all the Scamander kids of her generation fondly call Papa, he is quite sedate in his mind. Especially when they are with his creatures, it is quite calming.

Her great-grandmother is different. When she can hear her Nana's silent voices, they are strong, and stretching, but for the most part, they are quite there.

Normally, it seems like everyone is talking constantly. At a normally level, or louder if they are angrier or sadder or just plan emotional. Her Nana is quieter, when she can her her, at a murmur. It is relaxing, a refreshing break from the constant barrage of noise.

And they wonder why she prefers to be alone. Penny adores being with out companions. She doesn't know it exists yet, but she agrees whole-heartily with the saying "Silence is golden."

In the mean time, she tells no one of the voices. She doesn't think to. Eventually, she might make a remark, and people will react to her as is she is crazy. It will strike fear in her, and she won't tell anyone of the voices, just let the worry and fear fester inside of her. When she finally has the courage to tell her family and friends, she is freed from that burden. She'll pick up a new burden, but she will know how to deal with it.

Hugo is only six, and more innocent than Penny ever was. He is unaffected by worries, doubts, and fears that constantly plague her, and as a result, is the quintessential young boy.

He doesn't realize that his future will be filled with the doubts and insecurities. He knows that he is part of the Weasleys, a brilliant family, but he doesn't know that his future will be filled with expectations and watching, judging eyes. He doesn't know that he will always be compared to his family, and that he will never measure up — until one day, he will, but not for a long time, and before that, there will be a plethora of self-doubt and feeling inferior and experiencing being a disappointment. Right now, he is blissfully unaware.

And that is where this story starts — when Penny and Hugo are young and blithely unaware. They are about to experience an event that will change Hugo's life — be his purpose — and cement their friendship.

He and his mum — the great Hermione Granger-Weasley — have come to see her Aunt Luna. Lorcan is being punished for a prank, while Lysander and Artemis are outside, playing with a creature. Hugo had come to her, she being the one that is closer to him in age and calmest. (She stays calm, serene even, because reacting to everything scares people. She is already a people-pleaser.) She had talked to him, and listened to him silent speak, before deciding that he would like the attic.

Her Aunt Luna's house has the best attic. It is lighthouse, which is rather odd when you consider that it is not near water, but cool nonetheless. The top floor is an attic, filled with all sorts of stuff. There is wizarding things —- old brooms, ancient robes, magical jewelry, a sort of cigar-like thing that puts out the lights, a bizarre-looking thing that is trying to be a crown, and what Penny thinks is Pensieve (she has heard people mention it.) — and muggle things — beach-balls, bowling pins, a ping-pong table, a collection of old board games, and a piano. The young boy, who Penny thought was nice, because he hadn't had any snide thoughts about her, or anyone, just tried to see the best in them. A little naive, she reflected, too maturely for her age, but sweet. Then she hears it.

She looks at him. If she hadn't heard it through the silent speaking, she would have never known he wanted it. He wasn't looking as though he had wished it; he looked normal.

But she had felt it, so gestured toward it and said, "You can play it, you know. That's the point of it." She shoved him toward the piano, trying to fufil his desire to play it. "I'll get some music." She walked away to root around in some boxes.

Hugo looked at the piano. He felt as though it was a part of him — which is crazy, because he has never seen one, let alone heard of one. But he has an overwhelming urge to play it.

"Here," Penny says, returning. She hands him a box. "There will be music here at your level."

"I've never played before," he admits sheepishly.

"Yes, I know," she tells him, and it sparks his curiosity. "We'll start at the beginning, of course! Here is a level one book." She hands him the book in question. He studies it, looking at the lines of music. After paging through it for a bit, he thinks he could start playing, and so he quietly shuffles over to the piano.

It's an old, black, upright piano. It looks a bit well worn, but it also has air about it that says it was loved. The girl, Penny, comes by his side.

"It was my Aunt Luna's mother's piano," she tells him. "She died when Auntie was young. She misses her a lot. The piano is impervious to harm and survived even when Aunt Luna' s father blew up the house with an Eurumpt horn."

He's right; this piano has been loved.

He take the book of easy pieces and instructions on how to play them and opens. "Ode to Joy" is what the title reads. By Ludwig Van Beethoven, adapted. She teaches him some little things, like where to sit and how to hold his hands. She tells him the note names and the staff, and how the note values are assigned. She has learned all of this through her mother's piano lessons. She finishes up her explanation, and he starts.

It is easy, and he feels it. He is playing one note at a time, and it feels so doable. It makes him feel complete to make the music so pretty.

They start testing out more and more of the songs. "Simple Gifts," a folk song, which Penny pulls out of a intermediate book. The song is beautiful.

Penny has never felt someone feel so complete, so fully at peace. It's a good feeling, of contentment. He is happy.

They are going through all the music now, trying to see what he can and cannot play. They know that Hugo being able to play like this is cool, but they don't know how amazing it is.

"Here," Penny says, looking through the box, "Try this one."

"'The Morning Mood,'" Hugo reads, "By Edvard Grieg, from the Peer Gynt Suite, arranged." He sits down to play it.

It is beautiful. Hugo instinctively has the melody shining through, and he is a natural. Though it is an abridged, it still a gorgeous piece being played by a capable and excited pianst.

Downstairs, they hear more people arriving. Penny's Aunt's friends are arriving. Ginny and Harry Potter are coming in, along with their children, James, Albus, and Lily.

Penny smiles at the little boy making the music. His mind is simultaneously serene and excited, and so she is just leaving him to it.

As she is leaving, she bumps into Ginny Potter and her older son James, who is ten. They can see and hear Hugo playing the piano.

"Good prank, Penny!" He exclaims. "I can't do anything like that. And look, you have really got him fooled!"

Ginny Potter, whose have previously been emanating shock, awe, and confusion, starts to silently speak comprehension. "Ahh. Hugo is very sensitive, Penny, please don't trick him like that. Anyway, you guys need to come down." They leave, Hugo's euphoria shattered.

She feels his brokenness. His family— the one that believes in Molly to lead, in Dominique to play quidditch, in Victoire to be friendly and encouraging and all-round talented, in Teddy to be there and smart and just perfectly-Teddy, and in all the brilliant stuff Rose and Albus will do in the future, in James's future spot on the Quidditch team, in Roxanne's and Fred's soon-to-be mischief, and in Lily's great and wonder future, has seen and do not believe in his potential.

He is crushed.

She feels his pain. "I'm so sorry. It's not a trick, you are wonderful, actually."

"Really?" He asks. She can see how his plans — the plans his fanciful six-year-old brain has constructed — are destroyed. Something he could stand out for — instead of being just another Weasley. He is huddled on the attic floor with tears in his eyes.

"Yes, really. Promise. It's just..." She tries to find the right way to put it. "I think you are too wonderful for them to believe."

"Really promise?"

"Promise, cross my heart, hope to die. Scout's Honor. Pinky Promise. Whatever means the most to you," She reassures him.

"Good." He gives her a weak smile. "Let's be friends, and let's have our very own promise."

"Okay!" She is happy — he is cheering up. "I know that my Nana and her sister used to have a sister promise, but we aren't actually siblings... only practically, in time..."

"I like that," he tells her, still heartbroken on the inside, but beginning to cheer up on the outside. "Practically Siblings. The Practically-Siblings-Promise. The PSP."

"Okay!" He is fully cheer up and her work is done. There, listening to his silent voices as he cheers up, she realizes that she should do this more often.

"Now," he begins, his young face serious, "You have to PSP. Don't tell anyone about it."

She wilts a little, because she is beginning to grasp how great he is, but complys. "Okay." She extends her right hand for him to shake, and then switches it to her left. "Special for us," she says.

"Okay. And... we should promise to always believe in each other and" He says, looking at her with hope.

"Always," she promises, and they both smile.

They go downs stairs together, holding hands, and everyone in the kitchen smiles at them. "Young love," says Hugo's dad, shaking his head but grinning.

"That's disgusting!" Hugo retorts. Penny feels the surprise off of everybody; Hugo is normally quieter. "Penny is not my girlfriend, she's my Practically-Sibling." Everyone's smiles become even sweeter and sadder and more reminiscent. Harry Potter smiles fondly at Hermione, and Penny feels his love for his Practically-Sister. "Like you and Hugo's mum," she tells him, not realizing until it's to late that she has been too outspoken.

He gives her an odd look, but they are distracted by a short, dark-haired, mini-Harry coming in. "Dad, it's not fair! James is tricking me again." The heavy amphosmere in the kitchen lifts and the happy gaiety resumes.

He is Albus, she realizes, and then notices that his silent speaking is practically not there. In this crowded, loud kitchen, she starts to gravitate toward him, a beacon in the dark.

"He dumped water on my head," Albus continues. "And then he had a trip line. Dad, stop him!"

"Why can't you try and find his tricks?" His dad questions, amused.

"Because if I accidentally walk into one, they go like dominos. Dad, I want to see Lysander's and Artemis's creatures, but I don't want to be a victom!" He pleads.

"I'll help," Penny offers. "I'm good at telling when there are tricks. I'll find them."

He looks at her, a little suspicious and doubtful, but he is willing to give her a try, so he nods, and they go out the back door.

"So," she says conversationally, but a little unsure of herself. She has never had anyone other than her grandmother totally closed off before. "You are Albus. I'm Penny. Can I call you Al?" She feels slightly awkward not knowing what he wants; because of that, she cannot not do anything to please.

"Sure," he tells her, as they walk through the yard.

"So," She starts, "what do you want?"

"Huh?" He looks at her oddly. "What?"

"What do you want?" She repeats. "It's my job, you know, to hear what you want and then help you get it, like Lysander wants time alone to learn, so I don't bother him... Artemis wants animals, so I help her smuggle them into the house... Oh watch out!" She says, dragged him backward and steering him. "Watch out, James has rigged the tree. And Hugo likes to play piano and be believed in... this way..." she pulls him to the right.

"Piano? What?" Albus asks. "Do people just tell you this stuff?" He looks at her incredulously.

"No, Silly! I hear it in the silent speaking."

"In the what?"

"The silent speaking," she says slowly, like she is explaining something simple. "You know, when someone is saying something, that they honestly think, but it's not quite out loud?"

"I have no clue what you are talking about," he tells her curiously. She stops, looking at him, worried. The silent voices are normal for her. She immediately thinks that there is something wrong with herself, and she starts to be anxious. He sees her wilt and asks, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," she tells him. It's one of her first lies of many. In her future, she will be a good liar, because she can fill in the holes and be on the lookout for tells. She will be able to be a excellent lie-detector, too, because she'll see it in the silent voices. "Come on, we'll take the long way around the pond to avoid trouble."

That day has changed both Penny and Hugo forever.


	2. Chapter 2: Hugo Through the Years

The years go by, and Hugo becomes more and more invested in the piano.

He finds a piano in his grandfather's garage of stuff, and he slathers Silencing Slime all around whenever he plays. He took some of the books from Luna's attic, and Penny brings him more over the years. Whenever he plays, he sneaks off, puts the slime around, and relaxes.

The first few times he was worried they would come look for him, but they don't.

Not ever.

Because with James and Roxanne and Fred pranking everyone, and Rose being absolutely brilliantly smart and Dominique outside flying amazing, who'd think to look for quiet little Hugo.

Sometimes he goes over to Penny's and they go to Luna's and play her piano. Well, he plays the piano while she relaxes. Or they stay at her house and play one of the spare pianos there, because her mother teaches piano and there are two downstairs and one upstairs, but it is harder to do this because she has lessons and her mother can hear a piano playing a mile away.

Hermione records his first 'accidental' magic as him making a bowl of stew fall on Fred's head, but in reality, it wasn't.

By that time, he had been doing it so long that it was second nature, and nowhere near accidental. He hadn't set out to dump a bowl of steaming stew on Fred's head, but Fred had played a nasty trick involving a biting book and chains, and when Hugo saw the opportunity arise he couldn't help himself. He purposely cut the levitating pot off from it's charm. Then, he proceeded to smirk at Fred.

He was nine.

His magic has never been accidental, on the contrary, he has done it on purpose ever since he was seven.

He sets up a security spell that tells him when anyone is coming inside the shed. Then, when it alerts him, by ringing a gong, of someone's eminent arrival, he transitions from playing the piano to tinkering around with random muggle stuff on the floor nearby.

His family thinks he has a muggle obsession, just like Grandad, and he bears the brute of the teasing for it. It's rough.

He connects with his muggle Grandmama about music, which is blown off as part of the muggle-obsession, and she starts taking him to see muggle concerts and musicals. He is enthralled by it, especially the time she took him to a recital a concert pianist was giving. He wished he could be up on that stage.

He starts to get really good. He can play almost any piece, and he wants to talk to someone about it. And he also wants his family's attention.

His father is good at giving him attention— it comes from being an overlooked child himself, Penny has told him. He is only eight, too young to realize that she shouldn't know that.

He longs to feel the focus of his family on him, on Hugo. Instead of paying attention to Dominique and Victorie and Albus and James and Teddy and all the rest of them, all brilliant. Not forever, just for a bit. To look past their perceptions of plain, average Hugo and see Hugo the piano prodigy.

He finally gets up his courage to tell his parents that he adores and is talented at playing the piano when he is nine. He feels giddy for the hours beforehand; his hopes are about to culminate. He dreams of taking lessons, of being the center of attention, of his family being proud of him.

He comes down that summer eve to dinner ready to tell his immediate family about his innate innate ability to play the piano.

All through dinner he is treated to Rose prattling on about Hogwarts. He understands; whenever Rose gets nervous she blabs incessantly. It is actually a spectacle to watch, because she has no filter whatsoever while she talks, and it'd been funny if it wasn't on today of all days.

Finally, Rose the chatter-pot heads up stairs, and his parents and him are alone at the table. After five minutes of meaningless small talk, he finally rallies.

"Mum? Dad? I have something to tell you guys—" But He is cut off.

"MUM!" Rose runs shrieking into the kitchen. "My Hogwarts letter arrived! It's here, with the booklist and everything!"

"That's wonderful, darling!" His mother exclaims.

"We'll have to go to Diagon Ally," his father adds. "New robes and a new owl, I would say, for our future straight-O student?"

"Oh, yes, please, thank you, Daddy!" Rose says happily. The focus is on her now, like it always is. The brief amount of time he has had his parents' attention is gone; an occurrence which is very rare. He goes to bed that night a little defeated, but still full of hope.

Over the next couple of weeks, that hope disappears.

Everytime Hugo attempts to engage his parents in a discussion, they are either busy with work (a little bit of the time) or talking and preparing with Rose (most of the time). Everytime he opens his mouth to tell them, chaos appear. It's crazy, as Hugo reflects on it, because when Hugo tracked down his parents one serene Saturday afternoon where they had absolutely nothing planned, at the exact moment he opened his mouth to tell them — his parents' focus on him — Rose burst outside to the garden, where he had cornered them, shouting that her owl had just retched up a pellet and a ministry official had his head in the Floo and Uncle George was wanting to get a hold of Dad and he was attempting to use the fellytone, only he had made it a party call, and she hadn't even known those had existed, and that Albus was coming over in fifteen minutes, bringing a friend.

That had been the last time he had attempted to explain to his parents about his passion, talent, and dream.

His parents had leapt up and ignored him as they had run off to fix the messes that had sprung up, while Hugo wilted and withered inside.

Fortunately, the friend Albus had brought along had been Penny. When he came in and found them there, she had swayed a bit and almost had crashed to the floor.

"Penny!" Albus had cried.

"Al!" She gasped. "I'm fine. I just need to talk to Hugo," she had said, "Right now!" She looked beaten down and overwelmed. "I'll be right back." His mum and dad and sister are eying his Practically-Sibling, who, he rashly reflected, was more of a sibling to him than Rose.

"Hugo," She said, dragging him through the door to his room, still looking taxed. "What is wrong?"

He shakes his head, gutted.

She gives a sharp inhalation of breath. "Oh, Hugo," she breathes, looking heartbroken. "I am so sorry. They'll pay you attention someday, I swear."

For the first time in his life, he wonders how Porpentina Estel Boot knows all that she does.

But him being young, and the first time, he doesn't question it.

"But why do they give everyone else attention?" He asks her woodenly. Why do they give Rose attention, he wonders bleakly.

"They don't like Rose better than you, promise," Penny said, leaving him to marvel at her. "She is just a little more pushy with her gifts. They'll see you one day."

"I hope so," he replies, still sad.

"In the meantime," she says, a little more briskly, her health starting to look better, "Let's PSP to pay attention to each other."

They both hold out their left hands, and they shake, saying one simple word: "Always."

"And, Hugo?" Penny adds, looking at him sadly, "Don't give up on Rose. She is your sister, and you will reconcile one day. Don't give up on her."

He nods, and she gives him a small smile and goes back to her friends. Penny has helped, but he is still a bit crushed.

He stayed sad even until Rose was off at school. His parent's blamed his heartaches on Rose leaving; inside, this made him wilt a bit. Did they think that he had nothing in his life that was not related to them? Did they, and everyone else, think that he would always be Hugo, there and with his family? His courage to tell ebbs away, and his secret stays one.

When he is ten, he overhears his grandfather talking about how he might get rid of the piano. Hugo is panicked. He begs Penny to bring him a book about Permanent Sticking Charms, and she grudgingly agrees. She even lets him borrow her wand to cast the spell so it will be stronger.

Later that week, Arther Weasley attempts to levitate the piano out of his shed. The spell does not work.

He calls his children, in-laws, and grandchildren to come have a go. Penny comes along with Hugo and Albus, who she has become close friends with.

Hugo and Penny have an amusing time watching not one, not two, not three, but _ people striving with various ways to get the piano out of their.

Ron and Charlie tried to levitate it. George tested out some joke store supplies to no avail ("Merlin, Dad, at least you knew how to work the flying car!"). Bill tries some curse-breaking stuff on it ("Bloody Hell, dad, what did you do to it?!") while Ginny put her head together with Fleur, Hermione, and Angelina to come up with a sensible way to do it ("Dad... were you drunk when you installed this?"). Victorie and Teddy teamed up to try some stuff together. They all failed. At one point, in frustration, Harry sent a blast toward it, attempting to turn it to dust (Fortunately for Hugo and his piano, Penny had possessed the presence of mind to put an Impertuable Charm on it). In an even more amusing turn of events, Hermione suggested moving it the muggle way. All the under-age Weasley grandkids and their friends laughed their heads off at Bill, Harry, Ron, Charlie, and George endeavoring to move the un-budgable piano, and Dominique and Louis even got pictures. It's a good memory.

Through the next week, Hugo and Penny and Artemis and the other grandchildren, who had all chosen the entertaining option of staying at Grandma's, watched with mirth as family friends dropped by, all attempting to solve the problem of the pesky piano.

Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic, had come, and the former Auror had tried a multitude of spells before admitting defeat.

Lee Jorden and his wife, Alicia, and Oliver and Katie Wood had a crack at it, with no success.

Neville Longbottom came by, along with the rest of the Hogwarts staff. Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, Madame Pomfry, and Madame Pince, along with the practically-in-retirement Madame Hooch and Ponmea Sprout all undertook the job. Even with their combined efforts, the piano does not move an inch.

Madame Rosmerta also gave it her best shot, which did nothing.

Luna and Rolf Scamander came around to venture to unstick the infamously stuck piano, with no results.

As the immense Weasley clan spread the news of the challenge, more people came around to give it a whirl. Healers, Aurors, Ministry of Magic workers, Professors, and family friends all parade through the house, venturing to unstick the piano, and not one succeeds.

Teddy even dragged his grandmother, Andromeda Tonks, to try her hand at it. She brings her friend, Augusta Longbottom, Neville's grandmother, along with her, and while both the formidable witches try their hardest, they have no luck.

Meanwhile, the underage children have attempted the mission on their own.

As Victoire and Teddy are the only grandchildren overage, this is quite the stealth operation. It involves everyone who has been to Hogwarts: Dominque, who at age sixteen, the only one to have done her OWLs, has the most chance out of anyone; Molly, fifteen, with the next best chance; Lucy, a accomplished Ravenclaw, though she has not sat her OWLs yet; Louis, also an Eagle, but young; James, Roxanne, and Fred, all skilled at magic in their own haphazard, rule-breaking way; Albus, a woefully under-prepared soldier just out of second year, though admittedly he's got Penny to help him, though she is not going to actually be of any assistance; and Rose, brilliant Rose, who passed with 134% in Transfiguration and still came home disappointed. Rose, who knew more jinxes and hexes in halls of Hogwarts than some of the fourth and fifth years. Rose, who can talk just as intelligently as Lucy and Lysander and Louis, and they are all Ravenclaws, and older than her to boot.

Rose, who everyone thinks is a genius and amazing and exceptional. Who steals Hugo's thunder every time he tries to share his gift.

Every participant in the mission fails, and he and his cousin Lily, who he is close to, but not that close, watch with amusement as they go back inside, having been caught by Grandma, and shamed with de-gnoming the garden.

Eventually, Arther decides that he must have accidentally done something with it, and accepts defeat. The visitors stop pouring in, and life goes back to normal.

Within a few days, nobody even notices the piano's corner of the shed anymore and Hugo can go back to practicing in peace — He had to go off with Penny to Luna's to practice, and this had been a tedious process.

First, Penny had to invite him over — which considering how close they were was reasonable hard. Also, it took an incredible amount of cunning not to have Albus invited over with them, because he and Penny were close. After pulling out about a million ideas, they finally planted the idea in Rose's head to have Al play Quidditch with her, and that one works. Another time they sneakily set up Albus in the library, reading _The_ _Life_ _and_ _Lies_ of _Albus_ _Dumbledore_, and while Albus is busy being shocked at his namesake, they run off to Penny's while they are distracted. Albus eventually gets cleared up on the facts, by his dad, and looks for them, but by then they are gone.

Next, they have to go to Luna's. When Luna is at home alone, this is an easy feat, for she wouldn't bat an eyelash if they showed up toting a Kneazle and a book and told her they wanted to teach it to read and play piano and violin all at once. However, it is summer, and the house is crawling with people: Rolf, Lorcan, Lysander, their friends, Artemis, grandparents and great-grandparents, and more. People who will be inquisitive over why Penny Boot and Hugo Weasley are trying to sneak into the Lovegood attic.

Fortunatly, Penny invented the Artifacts Project. Basically, they go into people's attics, mainly Luna's, looking for artifacts of "Importance, Nostalgia, and Hidden Memories," as Penny puts it. They have, with Albus tagging along, been in the Scamander attic (where they found a odd, old case that would have swallowed Hugo if he hadn't been pulled out by Al and Penny, a first edition copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, with something about Salamanders and their eyes highlighted, a pamphlet to Circus Arcanus, whatever that is, and a newspaper story about a muggle bakery in New York called Kowalski's. At least, Hugo and Al think it is a muggle bakery. The newspaper's muggle, but the treats are of Eurturpts and Nifflers and the like. It's odd, though Penny has a knowing look in her eye.) which was highly enlightening, and the Boot attic, which has a fascinating old scrapbook involving the early days of Ilvermory, and the Goldstein attic, which had a picture of two girls, one dark haired, one light haired. It's labeled as Queenie's ninth birthday, and Hugo thought it was Queenie and Penny until Penny pointed out the date — 1904 — and the fact that the browned haired girl is labeled as Tina, and she proceeds to explain that it is her great-grandmother and great-aunt. Albus had been with them for these discoveries.

Under the pretense of A.P., as Albus has abbreviated it, they go to the Lovegood attic five days in a row. After all the excuses and stories they have fed people, Hugo feels as though they could be Honorary Slytherins. Penny is especially good at lying.

He is starting get anxious over her; she is quiet and detached at times, and goes through a spell where she is having awful nightmares that keep her up in the pitch black silence. She seems to know too much — preferences he is sure he has never mentioned, memories and stories she has never been told. She also looks strained, like she is bearing a horrible burden.

In the mean time, he sits down and plays the piano for hours at a time until he relaxed.

He still worries, though. He is going to Hogwarts next year. He doesn't know how he will practice. He is uncertain of the future, too, and torn between living up to the expectation that he will be a Gryffindor — though Albus, Louis, and Lucy have all broken the mold, the assumption is still that he will be a Gryffindor — or going a different way so he is not following in Rose's footsteps. He doesn't know what to do.

He is pondering this at his Grandmommy Granger's, sitting with her in the living room. They are listening to CDs, and she is playing music, all different types. He is deep into his thoughts when a melody startles him out of thought.

"I did it my way..." the record player warbles. He looks at his grandmother

"Frank Sinatra," she tells him. "An American great."

"Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew, when I bit off more than I could chew. But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and spit it out. I faced it all and I stood tall; and did it my way..." Hugo listens to the music with amazement.

"The record shows I took the blows - and did it my way!"

It appears he has found a new favorite song.


	3. Chapter 3: Penny Through the Years

Penny learns to adapt as the years fly by.

As she matures, she learns to filter what comes out of her mouth. She stills tries to help people, though sometimes it is harder than others.

The conversation with Albus never leaves her; she felt she was a freak. It scared her. More than scared her, rather, it actually terrifies her. She worries that her family will not want her, or that her friends will shun her. She doesn't know what to think, really.

So she just listens, and tries to help.

Then, six months after the Albus and Hugo incident, her parents gather up her and her sisters Artemis and Queenie and her grandparents. They proceeded to tell a just ten-year-old Penny and a eleven-year-old Artemis that Queenie, her elder sister by ten years, was a legilsmen.

Or, in other words, that she could read minds.

Penny was definitely surprised. A little disappointed that they hadn't told them before — they had known for twelve years or so, since Queenie was very young, before Penny and Artemis had been thought up. Her grandparents had knew; it was just her and Artemis that hadn't been clued in, mainly because Queenie hadn't been around as often, but since she was coming home permanently soon, they thought that they should know. Penny realized that if Queenie — Who has always been away at school, or in Philadelphia — had been at home more often, she might realized it, curtesy of the noiseless talking. Artemis, however, lived life in blissful oblivion, and would have never connected the dots. But, being only just nine, it hadn't really dawned on her that her sister was seeing everything inside her mind.

After the first instance of breached privacy — Queenie accidentally saw a mean thought — Penny unconsciously started to Shield.

It had started so innocently, with Queenie, who had been in the United States, but she had use the floo to come home and visit it, watching as Artemis and Penny ate breakfast at the table. Then, Queenie had told them that there were chores they needed to do that day. The twenty-year-old had ordered them to clear the table and get started. Penny had seen Queenie's plan — Artemis and Penny would each being doing one job that was her's — and Penny had cruelly thought that Artemis was a much better older sister than Queenie.

Queenie had gotten the strangest look on her face, and then she got choked up. Penny felt the silent voices immediately; she ran to her oldest sister, crying that she was sorry, so sorry. The noise had attracted their parents, and Penny felt Artemis silent speak that Queenie was totally invading her privacy. Penny sniffed, and her mind began to unconsciously shield, to protect her secret.

The mind-Reading starts to cause a gap between the sisters. Queenie is on one side of the chasm, with Artemis and Penny on the other. The half-close sisterhood they had before is gone. Artemis hates the mind reading, and she feel hurt that they didn't tell her before. Queenie is hurting about something, Penny knows, that is why she moved. And sad that her sisters are mad at her.

Penny goes to her great-grandmother about this. "Nana," she confides, "I don't know what to do."

"Shield, Penny," her great-grandmother instructs. "It's your thoughts, they are meant to be private. Queenie shouldn't mind."

It's not only the invasion of the minds that drives the wedge between them; it's the attention too.

Queenie is always treated like she is special, because, well, she is. Natural legilemncy is a rare and exotic gift.

However, sometimes all three Boot girls find themselves wishing that Queenie was not blessed with it. Or, as they prefer to call themselves, Goldstein Girls, which is their great-grandmother's maiden name. One that is connected with bravery, adventure, independence, and loyalty. One that is even more ironic now, for Queenie Goldstein was a natural legilsmen too.

In the meantime, she hears spells from the silent speaking at starts to try her hand at them. She nearly gives her mother a heart attack when the poor lady sees her ten-year-old daughter cast a nonverbal levitating charm, windless too. Her family is proud of her, but then Queenie accidentally steals the attention away again.

Penny feels alone and isolated. Artemis is awkward and prefers her animals; however, Penny has a friend in Hugo, Albus, and her best friend Gwinith, and Albus's cousin, Rose. She gets closer to all of them, though there is something about Rose that doesn't sit well with her. Maybe because how Rose is always overshadowing Hugo.

The added another Practically-Sibling Promise: to always pay attention to one another.

They make it after she comes over to the Granger-Weasley house with Albus only to find Rose happily chattering on and on about Hogwarts while Hugo was desolate.

She watches him play piano and can honestly say that he is very, very good. He has a ritual for practicing, and she thinks he could be a prodigy, but she is not an expert. The need for a teacher plants a seed for an idea in her head, and she starts pondering how to take Hugo to a real teacher.

But in the meantime, she has got her own problems. The voices are louder now. More suffocating. She spends more and more time alone, desperate for a reprieve of the constant noise. Everyone she is around is constantly silent speaking toward her.

All save two people. Her Nana and Albus, who are just a whisper in the background. She hangs out with them, increasingly, because it is relaxing. With them, she forgets the fact that she somehow hears the silent voices, unexplainable.

In a desperate attempt to have more alone time, she starts to read muggle literature, to have more time alone, away from the voices.

When she is ten, they start to affect her like never before.

She tends to listen more now, instead of speaking, and the stuff she hears ranges from funny to ghastly.

She has a hard time not bursting into laughter whenever she is around her cousins, because Lorcan and Lysander both have a tendacy to make witty remarks, and both have also will make honest remarks in their minds. Several times she has giggled at nothing, and it's starting to earn her questioning looks. On the other side of the family, there is Janie, Annabel, and Michal, and they make her smile too.

On the other hand, she hears aweful, horrible stuff too. She hears everyone's grievances: Artemis is sorry, oddly, because she thinks that she is not enough, while Louis Weasley feels as though he is hurting his uncle and she sees why. Dominque Weasley sometimes feels smothered in her life, while Molly Weasley feels as though everyone expects her to be somebody else. The entire Weasley family struggles, but they all try to soldier on alone. Normally, in small groups, Penny can screen what she hears. When at her Aunt Luna's, she avoid almost all the adults like the plague; the war memories are too awful. Especially in big crowds, though, it gets harder.

Her family is invited to an Ministry party in London, and it is a living nightmare.

The voices overwhelm Penny, and they make her feel sick. The worst part is that most of these people are Aurors and Veterans, so the memories they have are sad and scary. She feels like she could faint, but when asks if she is well, the lie slides off her tongue easily: I'm fine, thank you. She eventually is able to retreat to a corner, still bombarded with the voices.

That night, she has the first nightmares.

They are appalling; true tales of people murdered because of their heritage and tortured and on the run and just plain out horrendous. The harrow memories that are not her's dominate her sleep.

She manages to hid it the first week. The second week, she sleeps less and less, all while lying more and more: I'm fine, Grandma. Yes, Queenie, I'm okay and don't read my mind!

She talks with Hugo, and she tells him of her sleep troubles. He gives her a sweet, worried look and asks if she is sure she is okay. She admits to him she's not, but says that she is handling it. She refuses to tell him why she is having nightmares.

By the third week, she is getting almost no sleep. Her mum declares that she looks deathly pale, and that she cannot go to school in that state. So Penny stays home, and sleeps almost the whole day. It is a restless sleep; not very refreshing, but no nightmares, at least. She heads back to her muggle day school the next day.

Two days later, she is still tired and sickly looking, and her teacher notices this and sends her to the nurse. The nurse has her sleep on a cot. Penny doesn't want to, but she lays down anyway and her exhaustion takes over.

The nightmare is the worst yet; she actually is in the middle of Hogwarts, and there is a horrible battle and people dying and all she wants to do is cry and scream and yell.

She wakes up in her panicked mother's arms, with the nurse, secretary, and principle of the school all staring at her.

It appears that normal ten-year-old girls do not scream bloody murder in their sleep. But then, when is Penny normal?

She lies more and more so she doesn't worry her parents. I'm fine, she tells them. I'm okay. Yes, the nightmares have stopped. Her Nana and Grandma are both worried about her. Her Papa gives her a small vial of what he calls Dreamless Sleep Potion, and she smiles at him and loves him. He gives her more over the months, and while her parents think that the night terrors have gone away, they are really just being suppressed.

She starts lying more and more. At first it just to reassure her parents and family that she is okay, that she has recovered from her bout of bad dreams. Then she starts to have alone time. To not have the voices bombarding her with sound and noise. She notices the signs people's minds look for when they suspect that she is not being truthful; once she knows what she is looking for, she clears them. She observes when her parents find holes in her stories, and she fills every loophole and every spot that would allow questions. By the time she turns eleven, a lie can role easily off her tongue.

She gets increasingly nervous leading up to the start of Hogwarts.

When she steps into Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, she knew she was right to worry. The silent speaking almost overwhelms her. Queenie doesn't exactly look happy, either; however, that is because of her abilities. People are telling her so many things: that they are hungry, sad, homesick, hurt; they want a boyfriend or a girlfriend or straight-Os or the prefect badge; they think it's stupid, cool, amazing. The list goes on and on.

Penny cannot cope.

"I can't do it!" She tells her Nana, desperately. "Please don't make me go!"

"Porpentina," her great-grandmother says gently, looking at her oddly. "You can do this. You've got it in you, Penny."

"Yes," her grandmother adds. "You are a Boot, Penny, a descendant of Chadwick Boot, and a Scamander and a Goldstein. You'll be able to do this."

"It's so loud," Penny whimpers weakly. She hates to be this pathetic, but she can't help herself.

Her grandmother looks at her oddly, while her Nana looks as though she is coming to a conclusion.

"Penny," her Nana asks, "Do you here voices?"

"What?" Penny asks, almost having a heart attack that someone has almost discovered her secret. "Of course not!" Her well-practiced lying skills past the test, and her grandmother shakes her head as if confused at herself.

"Oh, well, we would know by now." Her great-grandmother reflects. "It gets quieter, you know, they do quiet down."

Penny shakes her head silently. The voices won't quiet down; they are and will always be there.

However, she gets on the train.

As she approaches the great scarlet engine, she has the strangest sense that this will simultaneously be one of the best and worst times of her life.


End file.
